Multivalent ligands have been shown to capture toxins and pathogens. However, these conventional compounds and techniques have not provided the selectivity necessary to differentiate between closely related toxins or pathogens. Conventional ligands utilized for sensing toxins or pathogens have been full-length antibodies that possess very high specificity and binding affinities. Such antibodies are not ideal as they are not thermally, chemically and biologically stable enough to last for long periods of time. For example, in diagnostic applications for many pathogens, the constant genetic drift renders antibodies ineffective as their specificity and binding affinities decrease over time. Moreover, the presence of antibody matrix effects from a host's immune response can further interfere with detection in clinical samples and again render antibody capture unreliable.